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Liblady495

The past several months have been a very interesting time form me. Health issues, and a pesky cataract have slowed me down, making it hard to make much progress. After having cataract surgery in June and another one scheduled in Aug, I am now able to more mobile, not having to depend on others to take me places. I have worked on indexing (about 26,000) most of them for the 1940 Census. I am also working on the Langston Family Tree. Anticipating a trip to the Buffalo, New York area in the fall to work on the Voss tree, particularly the Weisleader family.

Most of last year was spent digitalizing 34 years of Langston Newsletter. My cousin, Dedria and I have taken on the task of producing the current newsletter. Preparing to publish our first issue shortly.

During our last visit, I helped a friend find some information about a great grandfather of her husband. We were able to find where he was buried. She called, I helped her find the cemetery again. Several weeks later, the family traveled to Iowa to the cemetery. Their brick wall was where was his wife buried. Upon finding the cemetery and the headstone, the picture showed that the headstone had fallen off its base. I soon received another phone call. They had picked up the headstone, turned it over and there was the information about the mother. They were so excited. Currently I am trying to find a time to visit with family and help them continue with their family journey. The genealogy bug bite hard.

The Langston Family.

I have started work on the Langston Family. As I digitalized 34 years of Langston Family Newsletters, I put all of the names into my genealogy software. The names from the newsletter include family groups, stories, inquiries, birth, marriage and obituaries. Over 4000 names were included in the database. I am now trying to work my way through the names, finding last names, duplicates, and connecting families.

I put the tree on Ancestry, privately for now, to check for documentation. Now with this many names it is very easy to get distracted, so I am working my way through one name at a time alphabetically. I will work through all of the names except the Langstons. When I get to them, I will be 75% finished, as there are over 1000 Langstons.

One of the issues is how much information do you include about the families that married into the Langston family. I have currently worked my way through the A’s and B’s, ready to start with the C’s. Looking at the list I have worked with 363 names, occasionally adding information to some other names, but trying to stick to my plan of working through the alphabet.

I know this task will take some time, but hopefully I will have a family tree I feel I can go back and follow the family lines. I have started with Caleb Langston who had several sons, 3 of which migrated to Arkansas in the early 1800’s. I can trace my lineage back to 3 of Caleb’s sons.

I also need to start getting things organized for my trip to Buffalo and the questions I would like to have answered when I get there. The lastest issue of Family Tree Magazine has a city guide for genealogists.

Will post again after I have gotten through a couple more letters.

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I am scanning 30+ years of newsletters, to make an archieval copy of all this wonderful information. I have about 1/2 of them completed because my cousin had a number of copies and I had already scanned them. But I have just received the very first ones.

The organization started in 1978, and set out the first newsletter in 1978. I can only imagine what it was like to write and copy a newletter 30 years ago. They probably (I hope) had an electric typewriter, had to send it to a printer to get it copied. I am amazed they were able to get photos included in the newsletter. As I look at what we can do today, writing for the newsletter has not changed, but the process to get it to print is very different. If they made a mistake, they might have to start a page all over, you couldn’t just highlight and delete. One regret is that the photos may or may not come out in the scanning. I am sure there is no way of collecting all of the various photos that have been included in the newsletters. One had an 8×10″ photo. They did not have a way to reduce the size as we do today. They were originally printed on 8 1/2 x 14 sheets. Which makes scanning a challenge.

The organization was started as the Samuel Bennett Langston Family Organization. After further research, it would appear that the Langston family of Izard County, Arkansas were not descendants of Samuel Bennett Langston. In 1996 the Samuel Bennett Langston Family Organization was changed to The Langston Family & Kinsmen Organization. This information will change some of the relationships that are reported in the early issues of the Newsletter.

As I am looking through and reading all of the names and stories, a wonderful history of the people that are a part of my family is emerging. My mother’s mother was Ida Langston, and my father’s mother was also a Langston. So it gets rather confusing. Then to top it all off, my father’s sister also married a Langston.

Now if I could find more of my father’s parent’s family, but they came from Germany and I haven’t had much luck in finding German records for them.

So right now I will continue to work on the newletters, so they can be put on CD’s or DVD’s and others can have a complete set of the newsletters from 1978 – 2011. I will also continue to pursue my father’s family, and my husband’s family.

I THINK GENEALOGY HAS TAKEN OVER MY LIFE!!!!!

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As I said in my Genea-Wish List, I wish life would stop interrupting my work on my genealogy. I am working on documentation for the Weisleder family and haven’t had time to get back to it for several days.

Of course, having time to spend with my brother and his wife, and my sister were a high priority. It was good to spent several days with them. We finalized our plans for an Alaskan Cruise later this summer.

Then I have been working on PR for a couple of church events. It takes time to make even a single slide. A friend is wanting to have a presentation representing 40 years of ministry and marriage. She was going to do it herself, but she got a computer virus and was so frustrated, I have been trying to help her out. Later today, I will take a group down for a conference retirement for them. Also I will be helping with Vacation Bible School next week. I have started an online class on using WordPress. We are on lesson 3 and I have learned several things that I know will be helpful as I work on making this a website/blog or a hybrid website. Then a picture was needed to complete a plaque for a gift, and I have been working on that picture.

I was able to get the picture ready to go very quickly, because I had downloaded DearMrytle’s webinar on labeling photographs. Now I had watched and wanted to make use of the information, but hadn’t actually done it. Of course I have PhotoShop, not the program she was using, but she did say it worked much the same in both programs. I just had to find the compatible term for frames, in PhotoShop. Once I found it, canvas, I was able to add a colored frame to the photo, Now I want to have time to label my photos.

Those are a few of my interruptions in the past week. I hope shortly I can get back to my Weisleders.

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There are times when you feel like the brickwalls are just getting higher and higher and higher, and sometime it just pours down in information.

I am information on a number of families, Grossman, Langston, DeWitt, Weisleder

I have received information from a family member about Michael C. Grossman and his parents, trying to reconcile what she has with what I have. Received my father’s SS application. When I opened it, I was with a person who has lived in this community for many, many years. When I told her my father was employed by Fred Doll Company, she told me that was the sale barn. There is not a sale barn in the community today. I would not have known what that was with out her telling me. He got his SS# in 1944, 4 years before I was born.

As I am working I received my new Kindle, so I have another gadget to learn how to make it work. Right now I have it charging so I can learn how to make it work. I have also downloaded a couple of Dear Myrtle’s Webinar’s and am looking forward to watching them to add to my computer knowledge. I want to say, the cost is very minimal. My schedule is so uncertain, I can’t always depend on having the day open to watch it live.

My Granddaughter has answered her first question, and I have sent her another prompt. Looking forward to seeing what she has.

On Facebook, a cousin has put some family pictures on the site, and we have been having discussions about them. Checking on names, and places etc.

Another side has been contacted, and is to be sending me some family newsletters to be scanned. When it is finished a CD or DVD will be created so that people can see all of the issues since 1978.

I also want to get back to the Weisleder family and continue working on those documents.

Maybe I better stop now and get busy on my work.

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Today has been a good day to stay in and work on genealogy. The temperature is about 37° with about a 22°wind chill. It was rainy this morning, now it is just winds, very gusty and cloudy. Are they going to have ball games this afternoon? The message just came through, no games. It will be better another day.

But back to genealogy. It seems you can look and look and look and nothing comes up. Then sometimes everything you look at adds to your information. I have received 2 death notices from the Buffalo, NY area that has helped out with my Weisleder family tree. Then today I received the obituary from the Springfield Daily News for Lilly Van Gundy. It gave the married name of her daughter, and named her stepson. Not a lot of information but it confirmed that she had married John Van Gundy and when he died. Lilly was the only daughter of Sophia (Weisleder) and Frederick Hale. I am waiting on another Death Notice to arrive and also for the SS application for my father. Hope they come soon.

I have also been working on a sourced document for the descendents of William and Eva Weisleder. I have one printed (its never complete) for William and Eva (Hagen) Weisleder, my maternal great-grandparents and have just completed the document for the family of their eldest daughter Sophia (Weisleder) Hale. She married Frederick Hale. They had 7 children, this includes a set of triplets, although 2 died, and I have tried to follow each family as far as I can. I have some , I think I have found some family links but not absolutely sure. But what I have is documented, and I know what documents I have for the families. I only have the next 6 children to do, with the 7th being my grandparents, I wanted to get several under my belt, to have an idea what I was doing, before I started on my grandparents, because I know that one will take me in a lot of directions, as they had 10 children, and of course, it will follow all of my nieces and nephews and their families.

On Ancestry, you can check to see about Recent Connect Activity. I found a couple of people checking for people that are a part of my family tree. That started me on another track for my husband’s family. I was finding information that matched up to mine.

So I must say this has been a good day for finding information, in addition to being a good day to stay in side.

Names: Included in the document I have so far. Weisleder, Hagan, Hale, Hasenpflug, Fitzpatrick, Burkhard, Kimling, Van Gundy, and Landry.

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You sometimes wonder, “Why do I need to know, where did this comes from, I’ll remember where I found this, How does it help me.”

I am working on Lillian Hale, and her life. She married Anthony Kimling, and later a John VanGundy. I was looking for more information on John VanGundy, and found the Van Gundy Family Tree. They had a Lillian Hale, but were not sure how she fit into the family. I was able to email, and tell them what information I had, with documentation, and why I felt, my Lillian Hale was the second wife of John VanGundy. When they responded back with some questions, I was able to answer, again with documentation and analysis, of why I believed we were talking about the same person. The person came back that they agreed with my analysis, of the situation, and we both had many of the same questions about the family. The daughter Agnes Mary Kimling, is listed as 17 year old on the 1930 Census with her Mother Lilly Hale, and John VanGundy, she is also listed as living with her father in 1918, on his World War I Draft Card. No records have been found for her birth, She has not been located on the 1920 Census, although both of her parents have been located. Where was this little girl in 1920. I am hoping to get some more information when I receive a copy of an obituary for Lilly VanGundy, that I have ordered. I also need to explore how to get the divorce papers, which may also help with this mystery.

It was exciting, to be able to share my thoughts and ideas.I had everything in place, and I didn’t have to go search for information, I knew exactly where to find it. To me that is what genealogy is all about. I was also able to share tip for another name on her list, and this name is from my husband’s side of the family.

I was able to do this because I took the time to cite my sources, and be sure I knew where they were. Also reading everything on the document, helps to do the analysis. So I know it is important to know where I got it, read it carefully, think about what it tells, and you will be surprised, what you may find.

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Yesterday was a good day for me to work on my back ups which Geneablogger was recommending. The day was very, very, very cold here. The temp never got into double digits and there was some very gusty winds, blowing the small amount of snow we had. It isn’t noon yet, but the temp showing is only 3°. There isn’t much wind, but still too cold to be out and about.

So yesterday I spent the day backing up my data, and also, going through the photos, I have added where with the camera or scanning over the past year. Since I use iPhoto and iPhoto Library Manager I was making CD backups of all the libraries I have added since my last back up. Now I have a copy of albums I still need to get proof sheets for. They are both fairly large, so they will both take some time. I am also continuing to scan the copies of the Langston Newsletters that I have, trying to get as many as possible ready to burn to a CD or Disk.

Today I have read my latest issue from Michael Neill’s Casefiles Clues. I really enjoy his tip of the day, and the newsletter containing his casefiles. If you are not familiar with this check it out at

Now my day has been interrupted, by a call to sub this afternoon. So I am finishing this post after returning home from a sub day. So my plans will be delayed for another day.

I am also struggling to get the blog to do some of the things I think it should be able to do. I know what I want but not being successfully the site to do what I want it to do. But that is a part of the learning curve. If I can get it figured out, wonderful, but until that time, there are some things, I won’t be putting out there.